L
lberry2
Guest
here is the scenario: A protestant goes to mass by himself because he is interested in the catholic faith, he has absolutely no intention of receiving the Eucharist and approaches the communion line with the intentions of “receiving a blessing” as catholics have informed him to do, however soon he realizes the line he is in is not the line the priest is front of, its the line headed by a Eucharistic minister, he doesn’t know what to do for he’s not sure if the Eucharistic Minister can give a blessing, he thinks about switching lines but before you know it he is in front and the minister gives him a host, knowing that he is unworthy to partake he slips it into his pocket, after mass he doesn’t know what to do with it and simply throws it in the trash, KEEP IN MIND: this is a protestant that is used to thinking of communion as just a SYMBOLIC representation and has no idea or concept of the “real presence”, later this person does research and realizes how sacred the Eucharist is and that it is in fact the LITERAL body of Christ, the person feels absolutely terrible and regretful for what he did for he had absolutely NO intention to do anything wrong or committing any sin ,he was just caught in an awkward situation and Handled it poorly. The person is now CONSTANTLY TORMENTED about what happened, he feels guilty beyond belief and feels like he is beyond God’s Mercy and has no chance for salvation now, what can i tell this person? He was planning on becoming catholic before this happened, now he feels like there is no point since he has committed what in his mind is an “unforgivable sin”, i think this person has developed a form of scrupulosity or OCD because of this event, probably as a result of reading countless articles about what a terrible sin it is to throw away a host, and that the person is automatically excommunication from the church, now the person is so scared he can hardly operate, he thinks he’s dammed to hell and has no chance, he also believes he is excomunicated from the church even though he was never a full member of the catholic church, anything i can tell my friend?? PLEASE HELP!